By Dick Mittman
allstate400atthebrickyard.com
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
After the Daytona 500 back in February, veteran Mark Martin and rookie Kasey Kahne were 43rd and 41st, respectively, in the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series point standings. Both lost engines early in the race.
Now, 25 races later and the Chase for the NEXTEL Cup cutoff coming up in the Chevy Monte Carlo 400 on the night of Sept. 11 at Richmond International Raceway, Kahne and Martin are hanging on to ninth and 10th, respectively. A good finish on the three-quarter-mile oval would put them into the final 10-race shootout for the championship.
Kahne drove his Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge to second place behind winner Elliott Sadler in the daylight-night Pop Secret 500 on Sept. 5 at California Speedway to hop from 11th to ninth in the standings. It was the fifth runner-up finish of the season for Kahne, 24, from Enumclaw, Wash.
Martin made his first NASCAR Cup start on April 5, 1981, five days before Kahne turned 1. Martin brought his Viagra Ford home third at California and leapfrogged from 12th to 10th in the standings. He trails new leader Jimmie Johnson by 424 points. Kahne is 415 points out of first. Johnson wrested the points lead away from four-time Brickyard 400 champion Jeff Gordon, who fell out in 37th place with a blown engine.
Martin is appearing in the top 10 for the first time this season. He holds a 25-point edge over 11th place Jamie McMurray, a narrow edge with one race left before the 10-race title showdown that starts Sept. 19 at New Hampshire International Speedway.
"I've had my heart broken many times in this business," Martin said.
During his Cup career that started full-time in 1988 with Roush Racing, Martin has finished second in the point standings four times and in the top eight 13 out of 16 seasons. Yet he's never won the title and after plummeting to a career-low 17th last year wondered whether the team would recover. And being first car eliminated in the Daytona 500 to start 2004 certainly didn't make him feel any better.
But crew chief Pat Tryson pulled the team together, Martin said. A 25th-place finish in the Brickyard 400 on Aug. 8 pushed him down to 15th in the standings, 676 points out of first. But Martin rebounded with finishes of third, second, 13th and third to get to race No. 26 in position to make the cutoff.
"I will say 2004 has been more pressure than I've ever felt in my career," Martin said. "This has been as difficult as anything I've done in my career just to try to overcome how much we spotted competition, but usually a lot of times they (tough seasons) are the ones that turn around and give you the most rewarding results.
"We're just going to stand by and see what happens."
Martin and Kahne have two opportunities to make the Chase. Finishing 10th or higher, of course, would get either in. But there also is the 400-point cutoff figure, with anyone within 400 points of the leader after 26 races also becomes eligible. This can only happen if Martin, Kahne and Ryan Newman (he jumped from 10th to eighth, 404 points in arrears) finish several positions in front of Johnson and Gordon at Richmond.
Also still harboring a shot at the Chase are 2000 Brickyard winner Bobby Labonte, who dipped from ninth to 12th, 460 points back and 36 points out of 10th, two-time Brickyard winner Dale Jarrett (-467, 43 points out of 10th), Jeremy Mayfield (-479, 55 points out of 10th) and 2003 Brickyard winner Kevin Harvick (-480, 56 points out of 10th).
Kahne has been in the top 10 seven times this season. Martin earned the 34th victory of his career in race No. 13, at Dover, when Kahne, who was leading, hit an oil spill and slid into the wall. A 36th-place finish July 1 at Chicagoland Speedway changed Kahne's approach.
"The last month-and-a-half has been really (a nervous time)," he said. "Ever since Chicago, ever since we lost a bunch of points at Chicago, I've really tried to figure out how to finish these races, how to finish them up front, do whatever it takes to have good races and not to crash the car, not to lose points because we fell out toward the end of the race.
"We've been able to do that. And we have one more race to do it, and we'll get in that top 10."
One thing Martin and Kahne have in common is that both came through Indiana while climbing the racing ladder. Arkansas native Martin lived in the state when he won the Indiana-based American Speed Association championship three straight seasons from 1978-80, while Kahne also lived in Indiana as he captured the USAC National Midget title in 2000.
"We're kind of out of the rookie stage," said Kahne, who leads the Rookie of the Year standings. "We're more of a team that's been together for a while."
Said Martin: "We have come back, but we really haven't totally done it until Saturday night. I didn't think we could do it when we spotted the competition over and over and over again so many points. We managed to do it, and that's a great thing."
Martin said he expects the 26th race will be "intense, fair and clean."
The first six in the standings - Johnson, Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth and Sadler - have clinched a spot in the Chase.
The 26-race leader will only have a five-point edge over second place when the 10-race showdown begins. Each driver under them will receive five points less down to 10 and, if it happens, to others within 400 points.
INs
1. Jimmie Johnson 3,482
2. Jeff Gordon -50
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -116
4. Tony Stewart -178
5. Matt Kenseth -229
6. Elliott Sadler -278
7. Kurt Busch -299
8. Ryan Newman -404
9. Kasey Kahne -415
10. Mark Martin -424
OUTs
11. Jamie McMurray -449
12. Bobby Labonte -460
13. Dale Jarrett -467
14. Jeremy Mayfield -479
15. Kevin Harvick -480
16. Casey Mears -778
17. Michael Waltrip -808
18. Jeff Burton -835
19. Robby Gordon -835
20. Rusty Wallace -841
21. Sterling Marlin -851
22. Greg Biffle -875
23. Brian Vickers -909
24. Terry Labonte -917
25. Joe Nemechek -996
26. Scott Wimmer -1,101
27. Ricky Rudd -1,170
28. Ward Burton -1,249
29. Scott Riggs -1,274
30. Jeff Green -1,415
31. Brendan Gaughan -1,437
32. Ken Schrader -1,449
33. Kyle Petty -1,461
34. Ricky Craven -1,581
35. Jimmy Spencer -1,981
36. Dave Blaney -2,187
37. Johnny Sauter -2,265
38. Derrike Cope -2,461
39. Morgan Shepherd -2,735
40. Todd Bodine -2,830
41. Kevin Lepage -2,866
42. Bill Elliott -2,984
43. Kirk Shelmerdine -2,993
44. John Andretti -3,022
45. Hermie Sadler -3,032
46. Bobby Hamilton Jr. -3,052
47. Carl Edwards -3,134
48. PJ Jones -3,166
49. Johnny Benson -3,211
50. Carl Long -3,215
51. Mike Wallace -3,233
52. Boris Said - 3,259
53. Scott Pruett -3,275
54. Joe Ruttman -3,275
55. Andy Hillenburg -3,276
56. Kenny Wallace -3,281
57. Kyle Busch -3,284
58. Larry Foyt -3,288
59. Geoffrey Bodine -3,290
60. Stanton Barrett -3,298
61. Ron Fellows -3,312
62. Tony Raines -3,320
63. Larry Gunselman -3,335
64. Kerry Earnhardt -3,345
65. Klaus Graf -3.370
66. Tom Hubert -3,372
67. Jim Inglebright -3,376
68. Andy Belmont -3,384
69. Mike Skinner -3,385
70. Eric McClure -3,392
71. Mike Bliss -3,412
72. Tony Ave -3,412
73. Ted Christopher -3,427
74. Shane Hmiel -3,431
75. Austin Cameron -3,439
76. Jason Jarrett -3,439
77. J.J. Yeley -3,442
78. Brandon Ash -3,442
79. Greg Sacks -3,445
80. Jeff Fuller -3,448
81. Chad Blount -3,448
82. Randy Lajoie -3,448
83. Jason Leffler -3,448 ***
2005 tickets: The 12th Brickyard 400 is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 7, 2005. Customers who are upgrading or purchasing Brickyard 400 tickets for the first time should act quickly to increase their chances of obtaining their desired seats.
To purchase tickets, camping or parking, contact the IMS ticket office at (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area, (317) 492-6700 locally or log on to www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com.
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